A beautiful morning sky was enjoyed as I drove along the front at Swansea and I thought that there are sometimes advantages in slow moving traffic. I crossed the Tawe Bridge and the traffic was easier until I reached the motorway when we slowed to a crawl, only a mile now. I arrived smack on 9.00 and Jan's bike was quickly loaded. We reached the meet point and shortly after Big Trev arrived with Colin and Mike, he parked in front of us and bounded out of the car with a gleeful grin - he really enjoyed his cycling! It was always a fascinating spectacle to see bikes being loaded or unloaded from Big Trev's cycle rack. None of us had ever seen a rack like it before and its pedigree was uncertain, but it was very effective.

There were seven of us altogether, myself, John White, Jan Garvey, Phil Jones, Colin Birch, Mike Brewer and, of course Big Trev and at about 10.20 we set off following the Taff northwards. Quite a bit of chatting goes on on these rides and quite a notable one was going on between Trev and Phil. Phil had raised the subject of a television programme broadcast the previous week, I only heard parts of the conversation but as a result of this they discovered that, for three years they lived opposite each other in Blaencwm. I'm sure childhood memories came flooding back for both of them and this would have been a subject revisited, time and time again ..... if only.

The Taff trail follows the old Trevethic railway line through beautiful beech woods and the track was bordered by a golden-bronze carpet of fallen leaves, mature and majestic beech trees all around, the weather was mild and the gradient was easy. What a lovely way to spend a day, seven friends together doing what they enjoy in glorious surroundings.

We were approaching Aberfan and John had warned us about a rather tricky hump back bridge "Make sure you're in a low gear," he said. It had a real hump and it was quite a thrill to reach the top after the steep ascent to see an equally steep descent on the other side. Pont y Gwaith Bridge could have been the inspiration for many a fairground ride. Round the corner then and we pushed the bikes up the steps to go under the main road. Not far now and lunch was calling.

We reached the community centre where we were going to eat and through the glass door we saw a crowd of about thirty ladies sitting at a long table, no other table was in sight. What were we to do? But somehow a table and seven chairs appeared in the corner. I stood at the end of this long table and explained to the ladies that as we were not usually honoured with the presence of so many ladies at our lunch stops a picture just had to be taken. On hearing this Trevor sprang into action, found an empty chair and was sitting among them sporting that familiar grin that was so characteristic of him. While we were waiting to eat Trevor announced that it had been his birthday the previous day and that he had sneaked a birthday cake along in his saddlebag. It was his 73rd birthday. Plates were borrowed and the cake was put on the table, cut into eight slices and sat there waiting for us to finish our amazingly generous lunches. Trevor was the first to finish and his hand shot out as if on a spring to grab the first slice, you see the cake was a light lemon sponge with icing and Trevor enjoyed a sweet tooth. He was also trying to solve a mathematical problem - how do you share eight pieces of cake among seven riders? Trevor was a mathematical genius because suddenly there were seven slices for seven riders. QED.

The six of us started to sing Happy Birthday, immediately joined by the sweet voices of thirty ladies, we finished with a rousing cheer and Trevor smiled contentedly. He got up to take a photo of our group, took a few paces back to get us all in, another pace back caused his elbow to connect with a female head. Miraculously I caught the moment, the lady offered to take our group photo, we smiled for the camera. How could we not, this was a lovely day.

It was soon time to go and we bade the ladies goodbye. The ride back was a gentle downhill gradient, the pace was easy and as usual we regularly stopped to regroup. Colin was riding with Trevor and at our last regroup they seemed a long time catching up. John's phone rang, it was Colin.

"Trevor is on the floor" he said "I can't get him up."

We raced back to find Trevor lying on the floor and complaining of pains in his chest. Phil put him on his side and the emergency services were called. We took off our coats, wrapped them around him and folded one to put under his head. He was concerned about his heart rate and we were able to reassure him that the monitor on his wrist read a normal rate of 80.

"My hands are cold" he said.

We managed to remove his two pairs of gloves and Jan and I held his hands.

"Your hands are warm" he said

It was more than just temperature that was changing hands.

We kept talking to him to reassure him that help was on the way but I know that Trevor had slipped away before the ambulance arrived.

One of life's real gentlemen, a lovely character. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Rest in peace.

Fun with Friends		Pont y Gwaith Bridge
Big Trev sneaks into the shot!		Mine!! All Mine!!
Sorry, did I bang your head?		Snapped by the Lady in Red